Taylor paintings sold for £14m (From Daily Echo)

Taylor paintings sold for £14m

12:14am Wednesday 8th February 2012 in National News © Press Association 2011

Three paintings from Hollywood star Elizabeth Taylor's art collection have been sold for almost £14 million at auction in London.

The paintings by Van Gogh, Edgar Degas and Claude Pissarro fetched a combined £13,787,750 at the Christie's sale, more than double their pre-sale low estimate of £6.2 million.

Taylor's Van Gogh, titled Vue de l'asile et de la Chapelle de Saint-Remy, fetched the top price of the group at £10,121,250.

The picture shows a view of the asylum where the artist spent his last months. Taylor's father, the art dealer Francis Taylor, had bought the painting on her behalf at auction in 1963 for £92,000.

Until her death, in March last year, it had hung in the living room of her Bel Air home.

This time round the Van Gogh was purchased by an anonymous bidder on the telephone after four minutes of competitive bidding by multiple clients.

The other two paintings - a youthful self-portrait by Edgar Degas (1834-1917) and a large-scale landscape by Claude Pissarro (1830-1903), called Pommiers a Eragny - sold for £713,250 and £2,953,250 respectively.

All prices included buyer's premium.

All three works featured prominently in the global tour of highlights from the Collection of Elizabeth Taylor, which was displayed in both New York and London last autumn.

Marc Porter, chairman of Christie's Americas, said: "The exceptional results for these three masterpieces by Van Gogh, Degas and Pissarro are further evidence of Elizabeth Taylor's skill and sophistication as a collector."